RossTS#16

For this lesson with Wenkai we again worked on his writing, I had him rewrite the answers to the last weeks questions but rewording the answers. This activity was a bit of a challenge but he said it helped his expand the way he was able to talk about his work.

We followed the same pattern as last time, reviewing the writing and working through the corrections together. However this time I started to focus on some of the smaller errors in order to improve the overall quality of his writing. 

By having to explain the same things several different way he said that he  was having to push the English he was conferrable using and the fact that he could was a nice surprise for him. 

RossTS#15

For this lesson we reviewed the writing assignment that I gave him. He had four 500 word answers. The questions focused on his research and describing the processes he used.  I read over the answers before arriving and came prepared with several queries and questions. We went over the corrections together, I explained the corrections and asked him to explain why he made some of the wording choices that he made. We work-shopped each question for about 15 minutes so that we could really look into each answer.

We focused on correcting the wort 30% of the errors with a major focus on grammar errors. The work-shopping was effective and by the last question he was able to spot the reoccurring errors and fix them. 

RossTS#14

For this lesson I had prepared several discussion questions and several situations so that we could practice his spoken English. We took turns going over the material and the responses to the questions. The focus of this lesson was to work on proper word choice. We discussed why you use certain words and not others.

By focusing on some of his awkward word choices and helping him notice how they are awkward we were able to improve his spoken English and the ease at which  he will be able to communicate. We talked about the differences between the US and Chian as well as places we had traveled. 

After the lesson was over I emailed him so short answer questions to work on for the next session

RossTS#13

For the second session we met on campus. This lesson was focused on helping Wenkai explain his work clearly. I asked his several questions regarding his research and critiqued his responses focusing on grammar and clarity.

Working with his to improve the clarity of his speech so it is more easily understood was a big priority of his because it was something he had been having trouble with. Because of the technical language involved it is important that he is understood as clearly as possible. He has a strong accent so a lot of the clarity errors come from this, however they are significant enough to impair the ability of someone to understand what he is trying to communicate.

RossTS#12

I met Wenkai at the Starbucks on Tennessee Street, we discussed the areas of his English that he wanted to work on and came up with a plan on how to achieve the goals that he wanted to achieve. His main focus was on how to improve his scientific writing and his social English skills. While he is fairly fluent in English his accuracy and sentence structure can be a bit off.

We discussed his previous English language learning experiences and the methods that he found most helpful ad what he found least helpful.  We came up with the methods that he wanted to use as well as a plan for working on the areas he had indicated. 

Marissa TS #16

My final tutoring session with Stephen was about speaking skills. We focused both on pronunciation and correct word usage. We spent the first part of the tutoring session going over minimal pairs using sounds like b/v, y/j, and short vs. long I (“this” vs. “these”). Stephen can hear the difference between these sounds when clearly pronounced or can figure out the word being used from context but cannot distinguish minimal pairs easily. We spent a little bit of time going over the phonetic mechanics of the pronunciation of these sounds, which seemed to help him pronounce them better. We spent the second part of the session in casual conversation about life in Guadalajara, where Stephen has just moved and where I studied a few years ago, with me occasionally pointing out errors in his pronunciation and grammar. Stephen is aware of the rules of grammar and correct pronunciation, but sometimes skips over them while trying to get his ideas across quickly.

Marissa TS #15

My fourth and final tutoring session with Cyan also focused on practicing for the independent writing portion of the TOEFL. I sent him a copy of the grading rubric and had him write another composition based on one of the topics, and this time in going through it I focused more on specific grammatical errors and awkward style. One thing I noticed with his writing was a tendency to overuse commas or not use them when necessary. He would use slashes to state two connected ideas (“imagination/intelligence are important…”) and use commas in a similar fashion for more complicated ideas, rather than connecting his thoughts with transition phrases or new sentences. We also went over subject/verb and pronoun/antecedent agreement, in particular making sure to use the correct verb conjugations for single vs. plural subjects and making sure the antecedent to which a pronoun is referring is clear within the sentence. Cyan occasionally has a tendency to omit the pronoun “it” in impersonal statements.